Saturday, October 13, 2007

Mental Health Day

One of the grads in my cohort used to always miss one --- and only one --- day of each of her grad seminars (we have a 10 week session). Sometimes she was sick, but sometimes she took a Mental Health Day. She might catch up on sleep, or be writing her paper for the seminar, or decide she needed to go see a movie and go out shopping, whatever was going to help her keep her sanity and happiness most effectively.

I've always appreciated that idea, even if I was afraid to use it at times because I was worried I'd be seen as slacking off. Yesterday though, even though I have applications due as early as next week and tons of things still to get done before then, I took a Mental Health Day. I needed it. You could probably tell from the tone of my last post (which I wrote when I was too angry to do any more revising and so it really was more like a Mental Health Day-and-a-Half). I realized when I totally ripped into three different friends (including Dissertation Buddy) who weren't even causing me my problems, that I should take some sanity time and recharge. Grad school work and rest does not always match up nicely with schedules and weekends.

My other job also wound down after hitting some craziness (don't ask) and so I felt that Friday would be a good weekend day, to do nothing in particular except rest and relax. I cooked all morning ---- I tried my hands at red beans and rice, although technically I haven't made the rice yet ---- and alternated that with washing oodles of dishes, although my kitchen isn't particularly clean. I spent a lot of time just sitting around, maybe on the internet, maybe on a newspaper, doing nothing much and not thinking. Then I went wine tasting with a friend. It was nice. It was a good day. I feel like speaking civily to people today rather than disemboweling them for the crime of existing in my presence when I was pissed off. I feel like I can face my job materials once again. Getting dressed to go get a nice coffee doesn't seem daunting.

However, I've been working long days all this week and evidently my cats are glad to see me. They're both curled up on my lap right now and purring and being cute and fuzzy. I can't move. It's very nice. But I need to go in to work on campus today, as yesterday was my weekend. My stash of letterhead is there as are all my job notes. And coffee. I need to end this bit of relaxation and get going back to work. But not quite yet. Not yet.

4 comments:

Cats are great relaxers. Use them to gauge your periodic needs for MHDs. When your howls send them skittering for the safety of under-the-bed, you need a day or a weekend off. When it's safe for me to re-enter the world, my cats let me know by snuggling in for a cuddle.

Can we deduct cats (food, litter and vet) as preventative medical expenses?

The mental health day is really super.This day will help the people to free from the mental health.The peoples are waiting for the tension free life.Because there are lot of problems are handled by them every day.They need like this day.You can do a good job.===============================macDual Diagnosis Dual Diagnosis